Leaderboard

Been in the Guard 18 years with 10 years in the squadron as a pilot. I would say it varies widly by squadron and even from year to year. 9 years ago, I would say our "camraderie" was rather low...today, MUCH higher. The big detractor is that most guys are from the local area (various burbs...with family/friends close) so we're kinda spread out all over the city, the kids are in different school systems and most of the wives have jobs. With that, everyone has their own thing going on and busy lives. Another factor is our average age is higher so most guys have older kids that have them going non-stop...not to mention many of us have other jobs. I don't think we could ever hold a candle to an overseas fighter squadron who mostly live on base and/or in the same neighborhood. That said, I've flown with the same bros for 10 years and they're truly like brothers to me. I wouldn't trade it for anything. Another unique thing about the guard is that many of us are prior-E and many people stay on the base for 30+. Our tightness is expanded grately outside the squadron. Example...when I was a SrA, I had an awesome E-9 who always took great care of us. Fast forward 13 years and I'm the projo for a a two week TDY. That same E-9 is my NCOIC for the trip...what a humbling experience to have that guy call me sir and be my right hand man for the trip. When I walk out to my jet, a buddy from my crew chiefin days is launching me out. When I walk over to the expediter truck, it's my buddy Bill and not just MSgt Snuffy. When we go TDY we ALL party together. We know our crew chiefs, weapons loaders and avionics guys by first name and we know their families. When we want to buy a car we talk to one of our part time AFE guys who manages a local dealership. When I need HVAC stuff done I know a guy in a Mx backshop who has a side business. If we want property management, we have a part time E-9. We even had an enlisted dude recently kill it on Shark Tank and is doing very well for himself. On the flip side, we can be like a small high school...everyone know everything! We're a giant family...sometimes a dysfunctional one, but a family nonetheless.

Watch a documentary about F-16 ops titled “Iron Eagle” and focus primarily on Hades bomb employment.

You forgot: prior to this...sim takeoff out of Missouri, sit in sim cruise for 14 hours, press sim button, sim cruise 14 hours home.

I’ll never understand some of the AFSOC leadership that are so opposed to the Friday shirts, callsigns, etc. Dudes love showing off their squadron and having a little fun in their jobs. IMHO, this sort of thing is in direct contradiction to Goldfein and his “revitalize the squadron” initiatives. I’m sure some people don’t like them under the guise of “professionalism” or something but miss the forest for the trees.

That's a weird place for a microphone.

Takeoff out of Missouri, sit in cruise for 14 hours, press a button, sit in cruise for 14 hours, land.

I believe the UPT RIP is enough and we are only supposed to email AFPC if we were denying training. If I'm wrong, someone please correct me!

I have some stuff from IFT: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B59yPDOui02SQm50M01hRTRyY0k Fair warning, I went through two years ago. Respect the gouge.

No good pics of F-16s on the old Interwebz?!? Here's a good one...

False dichotomy. The question of "brotherhood" or "camaraderie" is a question of infinite variables in people and personality that's constantly changing. There's a spectrum-wide range of mission, leadership, location, aircraft, ops temp, etc in either org. There's also an equally wide range of people in every unit, be it AD or AFR/ANG. Generally speaking, you'll find more good people than not and the quality of your relationships with your coworkers depends entirely on you, not the branch of service. There's no difference, and you'll only get anecdotal evidence based on limited experience with any answer to this.

This, I did it for 17 years.

https://www.airforcemag.com/Features/Pages/2019/January 2019/Donovan-No-Buy-of-Light-Attack-Yet-More-Experiments-More-Types-to-Consider.aspx I’ve stated it before in this thread; the AF does not give a fuck about this program and does not value it highly when viewed alongside acquisitions like B-21, KC-46, F-35, next gen ICBM, 6th gen Air dominance, KC-Z, new advanced trainer etc. SOCOM/AFSOC will not pursue acquisition of this by themselves; AFSOC is prioritizing-130J, more CV-22s, and next gen ISR. Anyone who spontaneously ejaculated in excitement about the possibility of a “jet type light attack” reading my previous post missed the point, the AF is going to continue to drag it’s feet and make vague statements until this goes the way of the dodo.

Sounds like someone spiked your drink without you knowing. It's a single variable on a very long and complex application process. Many disqualifying items stipulate "having a history of....". A one off event, to me, does not indicate you having a history of an underlying medical condition or even a behavioral issue. But it's subjective, I'm not a flt doc, and in my experience most flight docs wouldn't care. However, there's a chance you face a bad flight doc on a bad day. What are you going to do? Not apply? Go for it. Don't divulge. Don't lie.

I heard a wise LtCol tell me once make sure your civilian doc never meets your FAA doc and that neither of them meet your mil doc. I wouldn’t lie. But if they don’t ask for it, I don’t think I would tell. The only records I have ever hear of the mil in possession of are those you give to them prior or if you have some procedure done by a civilian doc while on mil status with mil health insurance.

Buy land if not owned by the Federal Gov. Cost is important but it is affordable. It is not theft if the land is needed for the national security of the USA and appropriated with just compensation. Curious as you have no comment to the subject of the majority of my post, the wall is necessary for its own purpose to stop illegal activity and also necessary for millions of deplorables to see that their government responds to their wants, needs and concerns particularly after a very unexpected political victory/shock to the system. Condescending to them or just blowing them off is a recipe for disaster.

You're right, I emailed afpc accepting and they sent a reply back that essentially said "you're an idiot leave us alone" 🙂

Are we supposed to email the AFPC workflow accepting UPT selection? I asked my FSS POC and they said that just accepting the training RIPs is sufficient. The PDSM was worded weird.

All, thanks for the prompt response. FlyArmy, I am not really dead-set on an airframe at this point - honestly I'd be happy to fly anything at this point.

It's all fun and games at the range until you manage to down your wingman, and yourself. Great video; things get a bit western at 14:45.

Are these medical records something you have to turn over? The reason I ask is because I know a guy who didn’t disclose that he had a concussion snowboarding once and also had PRK laser correction surgery. I’m not advocating dishonesty, I’m also not advocating you telling them every time you had a drunken rager and hooked up with the ugly chick while in college. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

You’re gonna have to explain what you mean by “political posturing” brother. Your post says having experts is good, having schools is good, but you’re hung up on the “Weapons” piece of it? Then you loop in the quip about ISR... and it tells me you don’t know what youre taking about. And there’s no argument. The really interesting one is cyber. Those guys can have devastating effects... does what they employ classify as a weapon? Should they have a Weapons School? You’ll be hard pressed to find a warfighting commander willing to go to war without them... As a commander I want to be able to have go to guys there when the shit hits the fan. I can look at the squadron/AOC/Staff, see the patches and universally across the USAF it’s understood what the patch means, what those guys do, what those guys know. From personal experience, when ops were being planned and despite the expertise in the squadron, I pulled in the patches first and everyone else second. Thats all we are talking about, and it’s the only piece about going to the WIC that matters. Getting hung up on the “Weapons” piece of Weapons School is missing the forest for the first tree seen. Chuck

I'll take it if you pay for shipping.